


Lineage

by floraandfauna (irisgoddess)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, may the fouth be with you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-23 18:04:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18707185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irisgoddess/pseuds/floraandfauna
Summary: Mace trains Depa. Depa trains Caleb. Kanan trains Ezra. And Ezra trains someone new."Breathe."





	Lineage

"Breathe," Master Windu said.

Depa tried, and gripped her lightsaber tightly with both hands. It felt like some sort of joke, the worst duelist in her cohort being apprenticed to the best duelist in the entire Jedi Order. In the three months since she became his padawan, she had barely improved at all.

Mace chuckled a little, which embarrassed Depa. Was he mocking her? "Don't tighten your grip, Depa. You want to hold it more loosely."

"But people always disarm me!"

"I know," Mace said. "But you can't fix that by holding the sword more tightly." Depa groaned internally, and her master seemed to sense that. "Just trust that you can hold onto it, and you will."

Depa breathed, loosened her grip, and got ready to try the maneuver again.

* * *

"Breathe," Master Billaba said, putting her hand on Caleb's shoulder as he tried not to cry. He looked at Third Eye's corpse. How could he breathe when one of their soldiers had just died? When they could lose everyone else tomorrow, or the day after that? When the Force flowed through Third Eye's body the same way it flowed through a rock?

"I know it's hard," Depa said. "Letting go is always hard."

"I want to cling to them," Caleb replied. "If I care, maybe I'll save more of them."

Depa nodded. "I understand the impulse. And sometimes, in battle, attachment to the outcome is useful. But you need to learn to let go first."

"But—," Caleb started. She placed a hand on his shoulder—not really interrupting him, if he wanted to keep speaking, but he stopped anyway.

"You are still in the beginning of your training, padawan. This war, it makes you want to skip to the end, because the basics don't feel like enough. But rushing it will not work." She spoke softly, calmly.

Caleb closed his eyes, focused on his grief, then pictured it as bubbles rising into the air.

* * *

"Breathe," Kanan said, putting his hand on Ezra's shoulder. Ezra took a deep breath. The closer the Ghost got to Lothal, the more he felt fourteen again, reaching out to the Force for the first time. "What's bothering you?"

Ezra asked himself the same question. He took another deep breath. "Figuring out what the Empire wants with Lothal and stopping it is the best move. I know that."

"But?"

Another deep breath. "It's my home. A good Jedi should be able to let go of those emotions, right?"

Kanan sighed thoughtfully. "There's more than one way to be a good Jedi, Ezra. And all of them involve letting go of the idea that you can completely control your emotions. You can't."

"But _there is no emotion, there is only peace._ "

Kanan raised an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure I taught you not to take a meditation mantra too seriously."

"Well, yeah, but that's the most important one."

"It's okay to love your home, Ezra. It's even okay to put it above other places, within reason. Not perfect, but no Jedi is, even the greatest ones. Trust that you can let go when it mattered."

Ezra looked at the eyes painted on Kanan's mask. He loved Lothal. And he did trust himself now, in a way he hadn't at fourteen. "I do."

"Then that's enough."

* * *

"Breathe," Ezra said. Talia took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes further shut. It was just so _hard_. All her life, she'd been taught to use the Force to sense stars and planets and gravity wells, so that the Chiss Ascendency could travel between systems. Now, this strange, mud-colored, white-eyed alien wanted her to focus on only a few cubic meters of the galaxy, and she had no idea how to do it.

But her navigational gift was fading, as it always faded for the Chiss, and she would do anything in order not to lose the Force.

She'd managed it before, of course—otherwise she would've just called Ezra a liar and run away again, hiding from the authorities that expected her to sacrifice herself to defend the Ascendancy's secrets. But every time, her focus eventually slipped, and she found herself reaching for the stars she could no longer feel. She couldn't _let go_ of her old training, no matter how hard she tried.

"Hey," Ezra interrupted her thoughts. "You should probably let that breath out."

Talia hadn't even noticed she'd been holding it. She exhaled and opened her eyes to find that the human already had. "I can't do it," she grumbled, and waited for him to say _'Yes, you can.'_

"You want to fly a TIE fighter?" he asked instead.

Talia blinked slowly, unsure if she'd heard him correctly. "What?"

"It's how you're used to using the Force. Maybe this isn't working because you don't feel comfortable."

"Do you really think that will work?"

"If it doesn't, you've still had fun."

Talia _hadn't_ ever flown one of the _Chimera_ 's fighters, and she _was_ bored of sitting around and trying to meditate. She took a deep breath. "Sure. Let's do it."

**Author's Note:**

> Didn't do characterization checks because I can only stream season 4 and I hate season 4 and need to stay in a more PJO place anyway for The Big Fic. Living recklessly. Also, uh, hate everything Thrawn: Alliances introduced about Chiss force-sensitivity, so this is one-part fix-it fic. May the fourth be with you.
> 
> Best chunk of cut Kanan and Ezra 1.0: "He brushed a Loth-cat off his shoulder, but it just climbed into his lap along with the two others already sitting there."


End file.
